All men are called to belong to the new people of God. Wherefore this people, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world and must exist in all ages, so that the decree of God's will may be fulfilled…, that all His children, scattered as they were, would finally be gathered together as one. (Jn 11:52)) It was for this purpose that God sent His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, (Heb 1:2) that be might be teacher, king and priest of all, the head of the new and universal people of the sons of God.

The Word of the Father, only-begotten Son of God, Sun of justice (Mal 3:20), is the great merchant who has brought us the price of our redemption. It is a truly precious exchange that we can never value sufficiently when a King, son of the King most high, has become the coin, the gold has paid our dues, the just man is given for the sinner. Truly unmerited mercy, perfectly disinterested love, astonishing goodness…, it is a completely disproportionate purchase in which the Son of God is delivered up for the servant, the Creator is put to death for the one he has created, the Lord is condemned for his slave.

“At midnight someone shouted.” What does that mean? It happens at the time when no one is thinking of it, when no one is expecting it… He will come at the time when you are least thinking of it. Why will he come like that? Because he says: “The exact time is not yours to know. The Father has reserved that to himself.” (Acts 1:7) The apostle Paul says: “The day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night.” (1 Thess 5:2)

To want to place one’s hope and trust in passing things is to want to set one’s foundations in running water! Everything passes, God abides. To be attached to what is transitory is to cut oneself off from what endures. For who, carried away by the angry whirling of a rapid, can stand firm in that roiling flood? So if you want to avoid being carried away by the current then flee from all that flows away. Otherwise, the object of our love will make us end up doing exactly what we wanted to avoid.

If you have a few virtues, the sources of good works, or rather, because you are rich in virtue, persevere in the practice of them, always make progress and, through them, lead the combat for Christ until death so that on the last day, at the end of your life, you will receive the crown of glory and honor as payment and reward for your labor. This is why Jesus Christ your only love tells you in the Apocalypse: “Remain faithful to death and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev 2:10)

In the Gospel, Jesus says: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life,” (Jn 10,27). A little earlier on he had said: “Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture,” (v.9). For we come in through faith but go out in faith towards the vision face to face. Passing from belief to contemplation, we will find pasture for our eternal repose.

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

But when we see ordinary, unlettered fishermen and tax collectors so bold as to discuss faith in Jesus Christ with the Jews and to preach it with success to the rest of the world, how could we not seek out the origin of this power of persuasion? How could we not acknowledge that the words of Jesus: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:19)

The Canaanite woman’s daughter was “troubled by a demon.” Once the bad agitation of our thoughts has been driven out and the knots of our sins untied, serenity of spirit will return to us as well as the ability to act correctly… If, following the example of the Canaanite woman, we persevere in prayer with unshakeable firmness, our Creator’s grace will be present to us. It will correct all the errors in us, it will sanctify all that is impure, it will pacify all agitation.